Chicken thighs are the new wings on a growing number of restaurant menus as food prices continue to soar. The less-desirable darker meat – which is half as expensive as wing and breast meat – is debuting on menus across the country with suppliers reporting double-digit sales increases for thigh meat, according to a report. Perdue Farms’ sales of boneless thigh meat spiked by 15 percent in 2021 while ground chicken – which is made from darker meat – went up by 20 percent, according to The Wall Street Journal. “That demand has been spectacular,” Mark McKay, president of fresh poultry at Perdue, told the Journal. Some of that demand is coming from chains like Wingstop, which introduced “Thighstop” to its virtual menu in June — and the 900-store chain has plans to make thighs an even bigger part of its offerings. “We believe we can make thighs a center of the plate item,” chief executive Charlie Morrison told investors in November. Other chains, including Modern Market Eatery and Just Salad and Wing it On, also started selling thighs during the pandemic as wings became difficult and more expensive to source due to labor shortages and the fast food chicken sandwich wars. Poultry conglomerate Tyson Foods is also seeing surging demand for thigh and dark meats, which are typically exported to other countries because Americans prefer white meat. The meat manufacturer said in August that it’s ramping up its automation capabilities for deboning dark-meat products. The darker meats give food service operations an “alternative to wings and breast meat,” Tyson told The Journal. The cost differential is significant. Boneless, skinless chicken breast has shot up to $2 a pound from just under $1 a pound in late 2020 while thighs cost about 54 cents a pound compared to 26 cents a year ago, according to market research firm Urner Barry. Still, thighs are not commonly featured at US restaurants, with just 2 percent of menus offering a thigh option, according to the report. But as food inflation marches on into 2022 – with no end in sight – more chains could be cooking up new plans to give thighs a starring role.
